Easy Sourdough Baguettes for Beginners [Video]

Baguettes can be a tricky thing. On the surface they seem like a fairly simple bread to make — and they are. But that’s the problem. It’s often the simplest things that are the most difficult to perfect.

Simple does not necessarily equate to easy.

Mixing a smooth extensible baguette dough can be a challenge. Shaping nice even baguettes can be a challenge. Transferring baguettes to the oven can be a challenge. Scoring can be a challenge.

In order to simplify the baguette making process a bit, I’ve tried to remove a couple of those difficulties. I’ll show you a simple (and easy) way to mix a nice smooth dough. And we’ll bake the baguettes on a sheet pan to remove the challenge (and equipment needs) of transferring baguettes from couche to peel to oven.

Shaping and scoring will still be difficult — that’s just the nature of baguettes. But I’ll show you a gentle and efficient method for shaping them that anyone can learn with a bit of practice. Keep in mind, your shaping doesn’t have to be perfect in order to get nice baguettes.

And just what kind of baguette will we be getting, exactly?

Even though this is just a beginner’s baguette method, you can still make high quality baguettes at home. They may not be on par with the baguettes you’ll find at a high-end artisan bread shop, but is that even necessary? With this simple method and only minimal effort you can produce attractive and delicious baguettes from home that will more than meet your needs.

In the future, I’ll probably do an article for more advanced baguettes that will be a bit closer to what you might find at a bakery. But honestly, I make ’em this way more often than not just because the ease-to-quality ratio is so favorable.

Recipe

Baker’s Percentages (for final dough)

100% All-Purpose Flour (9% prefermented)
65% Water
2% Salt

Directions

Mixing

First thing you’ll notice is that this is a lower hydration recipe. The trend towards wetter doughs in many of the newer bakeries has also extended to the baguettes that these bakeries make. Many go as high as 80% hydration (or even more). The aim, of course, is for a super open and custardy crumb.

This recipe, however, makes a dough more the consistency of traditional baguette dough — stiffer rather than wetter. Now, different flours absorb water differently so my 65% hydration might make a stiffer or wetter dough than your 65% hydration. The goal is to achieve a consistency similar to what you see in the video — so feel free to adjust hydration as necessary.

The reason we’re using this stiffer dough is primarily for ease of handling. Wet dough is difficult stuff — especially for beginners. This dough, though still soft enough to be a bit sticky, should be much easier to handle on the whole.

Additionally, since we’ll be proofing these baguettes free-standing on a baking sheet, the stiffness will help to support the loaves so they can hold a nice shape and keep their height. If you were to try this with wet dough then the baguettes would likely flatten out unless you are very skilled at shaping.

Because of the stiffer dough (and because we’re baking on a sheet instead of directly on a stone) you won’t get the wildly open crumb that many bakers are striving for in their baguettes. But nevertheless, you can still get a light and open crumb even with such a stiff dough. Open crumb is 80% proper fermentation and handling — get good at those two things and your crumb will show it.

The second thing you’ll notice is that we’re not using an autolyse here.

I know, I know.

That’s practically heresy. Especially when it comes to baguettes where extensibility is so necessary. Trust me, you can still get extensible dough even without an autolyse. The point of this method is simplification. And one way to simplify things is to remove unnecessary steps.

Yes, I just said that the autolyse is unnecessary.

Of course, you’re free to autolyse the dough if you prefer. In fact, you’re free to change any step in this process however you like — there are no rules in bread baking. But if you like the results you see here, this is the method that produced them. I’d suggest trying it as presented before you start altering things.

Now that we’ve got all that out of the way. Let’s start mixing . . .

It’s pretty basic here, just toss everything into the bowl and mix it up a bit. This is a direct mixing method, and we’re just trying to get all the ingredients evenly incorporated at this point — we’re not trying to develop the gluten yet. I like to start with the water and salt just to make sure the salt dissolves evenly throughout the dough, but otherwise order of ingredients doesn’t really matter.

Even though we’re not using an autolyse, we are using a rest period. This one hour rest period will allow the flour to hydrate and the gluten to form. By letting time do the work for us we are minimizing the amount of muscular effort we need to develop the dough.

Believe it or not, just one hour is all the time necessary. In fact, I’ve done it with only a half-hour rest and the results are still pretty damn good. But one hour is noticeably better. After that, you start to run into the problem of diminishing returns.

So with this one hour rest we manage to reduce our mix time significantly. We only need a couple minutes in the beginning (just to incorporate the ingredients) and a couple minutes at the end (to smooth out the dough). Time does all the rest.

And it really does make a nice dough — even though we included the salt and starter right from the beginning. This is actually one of my favorite mixing methods, and I probably use it more than any other. If you have a stroll through my Instagram gallery (@trevorjaywilson) you’ll see a plethora of breads of which many, if not most, were made using this method.

I like it because it’s so simple, and yet so effective. Yes, I still often use a traditional autolyse. And yes, I often use the premixing method that I’m known for. But this method is actually my bread and butter. I’m drawn towards simplicity, and this method has it in spades. And to my hands, the quality of dough is effectively just as good. Yes, there are some subtle differences that I can feel between this and other methods. But they are minor, and so the small tradeoff is usually worth it to me.

So after your shaggy clump of dough has been resting for an hour, all you need to do is smooth it out. I like to first give it a set of folds to stretch the dough and build some tension, then I just knead it in the bowl for a couple minutes until it’s nice and smooth. You can see from the video how little time it takes. I left the second part of the mix unedited so you can see it go from shaggy mass to smooth dough in real time.

Just keep in mind that if your dough starts to tear then that means you’re working it too much. It really doesn’t take long to smooth out, so once you feel the dough ball starting to tighten or tear then you’re pretty much done. Set it into an oiled bowl and cover.

Bulk Fermentation

At room temp this dough usually takes around 2-4 hours to proof, but times will vary based on many circumstances. Better to judge by the amount of volume increase. You’re looking for a 30% to 50% rise.

But we need to discuss something here . . .

Generally, a 30% to 50% increase in volume is a good indicator that your dough has enough gas inside for it to have the necessary structure to hold a nice shape. Even a 20% rise, coupled with an appropriate bench rest after prerounding, is enough for dough to hold a nice shape.

But under 20% and your dough will not typically have enough structure to hold form, and will likely flatten out. The 20% mark is a fine line, and unless you have an experienced eye it’s best to err on the side of more proofy. That’s why I typically recommend a minimum 30% rise.

However . . .

The greater the rise during the bulk proof, the stronger and less extensible the dough will become. This can be a problem when it comes to shaping baguettes. Baguettes need extensibility. If your dough is too strong it’ll fight you.

And trust me, it’s a fight you will lose.

Trying to roll out baguettes from overly strong dough is a nightmare. You can pretty much count on ending up with torn and deformed baguettes.

So when it comes to proofing baguettes, younger dough is better — so long as you know you’ve at least hit that 20% mark. Therefore, I recommend shooting for something closer to a 30% rise rather than a 50% rise. This will make a noticeable difference when it comes to shaping the dough. If you’re very confident in your ability to judge degree of proof, then you might even want to aim for a 20% rise. In this video, I gave the dough a 30% rise, approximately.

And one thing to note, this method does not call for any folds.

Again, we simplify by removing steps. Besides, we’re working with a fairly stiff dough here which by it’s nature tends toward the stronger side. If we were to add folds, the extra strength would only detract from our ability to shape the baguettes. If you choose to ignore this advice, you do so at your own peril . . .

Prerounding

You’ll notice that I don’t use my normal “fold and tip” method to remove the dough here. That’s because those folds, especially so late into the proof, would add extra strength to the dough that we don’t want. Better to just scrape down the sides then ease it on out. Try not to let the dough flop over itself at all during this process. You want to remove it as just one clean layer.

Once the dough is on the table, square it up a bit then cut it in half. If you want to be exact, feel free to use a scale and weigh the dough out into pieces approximately 450g to 455g each. But eyeballing it is quick, easy and accurate enough for most home bakers. Plus, by minimizing handling and the number of cuts you need to make, you’re better maintaining the integrity of the dough. This results in a lighter crumb, which is important when using a stiffer dough like this.

There are many ways to preround baguettes. The method I use here is simple and not too difficult for beginners. It’s best to preround them as oblongs rather than boules — these will be much easier to shape evenly and roll out to length. If you want to see an alternative method of prerouding, I have a video on my Instagram where I use the “belly roll” technique (my preferred method).

When prerounding baguettes, the key is to achieve tension along the cross-section, but to keep it relaxed along the length. Cross-sectional tension will help you get a nice round body, and a relaxed length will help when it comes to rolling out the baguettes.

Once prerounded, they need to rest for around 20-45 minutes. You want them to sit long enough so that they give up a fair bit of their tension. This will help when it comes to rolling them out. But you don’t want them to sit for so long that they begin to proof up. As previously noted, the proofier the dough becomes the harder it will be to roll them out. I left mine uncovered, but if it’s cold, dry or drafty then it helps to cover them with plastic or cloth in order to prevent a skin from forming.

Shaping

Now we get to the hard part. Shaping baguettes is difficult — there’s just no way around it. In all my years as a professional, I’ve seen that baguettes — without fail — have always been the most challenging shape for new bakers to learn.

I wish I had better news for you.

For this fact alone, I probably shouldn’t have included “easy” in the post title. Forgive me the clickbait.

Now, if you like, you can actually just roll out the prerounded and relaxed pieces “as is”. You’ll still get a decent shape and acceptable results. But you’ll end up with a tighter crumb, less ovenspring and cuts that don’t open well.

The simple fact is that surface tension is required for optimal results. And the ability to create surface tension only comes with practice. The more you make these baguettes, the better you’ll get at shaping them.

The shaping method I use here is my preferred method. But there are many other methods you can use. Many methods make use of two folds and a couple passes of patting the seam to build tension. You can see an example of the Master Jeffrey Hamelman using one such method here (starts at about 2:30 into the video).

For my method, I prefer just one fold along with a gentle “push” to create the tension. Then I fold over the other half of the dough and seal the seam with the soft part of the palm of my hand. I don’t pat out any of the air before I shape it. My method emphasizes a gentle touch and economy of motion (which is helpful when shaping hundreds of baguettes a day in a production environment). The video up top shows my method far better than I can describe it here. Perhaps in the future I’ll make an entire video dedicated to demonstrating and explaining this method.

But for now, just watch it a bunch of times and mimic it as best you can. Or use your own preferred method of shaping. Whatever works best for you is what works best.

You’ll notice that my baguettes are shorter and fatter than your typical bakery baguette. These are “house baguettes”. Their size and shape are due to the limitations of the equipment (the sheet pan you use and/or the oven you bake in). And when I’m making house baguettes I prefer them to be a bit fatter anyway — more versatile that way. But if you like, you can actually divide the dough into 3 pieces so you can make them narrower like traditional baguettes.

After shaping, set them on a sheet pan lined with baking parchment and cover them with a damp cotton tea towel to prevent too much skin from forming. I like to remove the cloth about 30-60 minutes before I’m ready to bake — this allows the wet surface to dry a bit and form a very light skin that helps when scoring the loaves.

But too much skin will make for difficult scoring, poor spring and coloring, and overall ugly loaves. The skin should still be tacky and pliable — if it becomes completely dry to the touch and hard or crusty then it’s dried out too much. You can resoften a crusty skin by spraying or brushing it with water and letting it sit for a few minutes — it’s not ideal, but it’s better than a crunchy surface.

Or you can just leave the damp cloth for the entire proof if you prefer. The surface of the baguettes will be damp and more difficult to score, but that dampness can actually help out if you have difficulty generating enough steam in your oven.

Final Proofing

The baguettes should proof for around 1-2 hours or so. Again, times will vary based on many factors so adjust as necessary. When in doubt, use the finger poke test to determine if the baguettes are ready.

Now, I personally like to proof baguettes just a wee bit on the young side. This helps the cuts to bloom nicely in the oven. One thing to keep in mind is that, in general, loaves that proof free-standing (if well shaped) can handle a bit more proofing than loaves that are supported by baskets or on a folded couche. This is because they are more heavily weighed down by gravity, and therefore require more force (i.e. more gas accumulation) to counter those effects when aiming for the same degree of proof. So if you decide to proof your baguettes in a couche, adjust the recommended proof time as necessary.

Scoring

Again, this is just something that takes practice to get right. Just knowing how you’re supposed to score baguettes isn’t the same as actually being able to score them. Scoring is a skill that only comes with time. That said, here’s how it goes . . .

First, be aware of the pattern. The cuts should all be of equal length, of equal distance from each other, and evenly spaced from one end to the other. Each cut should be of the same slant as all the rest. If you had a centerline running the length of the baguette, then it would bisect each cut perfectly through the middle. In other words, exactly half of each cut should be on each side of the loaf — if more of the cut falls to one side of the baguette than the other, then you missed it. And each cut should overlap its neighbors by 20% to 30% or so.

When making your cuts, angle the blade 30 to 45 degrees so that you’re cutting just under the surface. This will help the cuts to bloom and form nice little ears.

Don’t worry if they’re not perfect the first time you try it (or even the 20th time). With practice you’ll get better and better at it. But if you prefer, you can just give them a single cut right down the center of the baguette. This is a much easier cut to make, if not quite traditional, and you’ll still get an attractive baguette.

Baking

I bake these at 500F (260C) for a total of 30 minutes. Bake times can vary quite a bit depending on your oven, the shape of your baguettes (narrower baguettes bake quicker), the kind of pan you’re using, whether you have a baking stone or not, etc.

Adjust as necessary.

I like to set my pan on a baking stone because it helps to more quickly transfer heat through the sheet pan and into the loaves. This helps with ovenspring and bloom. If you don’t have a baking stone, don’t worry — just set the pan on the rack as usual.

And please keep in mind, because these baguettes are baked on a sheet pan they will not get the same ovenspring, bloom and crust as they would if they were baked directly on the stone. That’s just part of the price you pay for the ease and simplicity of this method. But don’t worry, they’ll still be damn fine.

Regarding steaming, there are a multitude of ways to steam an oven. If you already have a preferred method then go ahead and use that. For me, I like to use a pan full of lava rocks. I preheat the lava rocks along with the oven, then use a watering can to pour in a cup or two of hot tap water. Some folks prefer to use boiling water, but hot tap works just fine for me.

Before pouring in the water, it’s important that you cover the glass on the oven door with a towel for protection. If you accidently spill water onto the hot glass it can shatter dramatically. Don’t think that spills won’t happen — they will, and one can ruin your day real quick.

And be sure to keep a safe distance from the steam. Keep your arms, and especially your face, as far back from the steam as you can. That’s why I use the watering can — it has a long spout which helps to provide safe distance from the danger zone. If you’ve ever suffered a steam burn before, you’ll know just how important keeping that safe distance is.

Once the baguettes are loaded and steamed, bake them first for 15 minutes. Then remove the pan of lava rocks (again, be careful here — the pan may still be steaming), rotate the sheet pan and then bake for another 15 minutes or until colored to your liking.

Cool and Enjoy!

Baguettes cool pretty quickly so you needn’t wait long to dig in. In fact, they’re pretty damn tasty right out of the oven (well, at least once they’ve cooled enough so they don’t burn you, that is). Feel free to ignore the usual advice I give on waiting until fully cooled. Yes, the flavor will continue to improve over the next day. But baguettes are really all about the crust, and for that reason I feel they’re best enjoyed hot and fresh.

Hey Paul, you can definitely do this! If you give it a try, let me know how it goes. And yeah, ain’t that knife just grand? So much better than my last. So many thanks are in order for the kind individual that sent it my way . . .

Thanks for the recipe Trevor. Baguette for dummies. Loved making it allthough I’m more a whole grain type. But baguette is a good chalence for shaping and scoring. I’ll have to work on it and your recipe allowed me to focus on these stages – amongst all others. Compensated a little for Dutch flour but ended up with a little to wet dough after all. I guess I still have to look for the 20-30% rise. Went over it now.

Judging the degree of proof — or the consistency of a dough — really is one of the most difficult skills to acquire. Small differences in proof and consistency can have dramatic effects on the dough later down the road. It’s such a subtle thing, and subtlety takes time to figure out. As always, practice is the only solution. I hope it works out better for you next time. Let me know . . .

Hello Trevor !!
This article came in good time!
I was practicing roasting baguettes, and it helped me a lot, thanks!
Difficult is watching the 20% increase, but I think this comes with time!
🙂
thank you friend!

Hey Marco, I’m glad it worked for you! You’re right, it does take time to accurately judge a 20% rise. It’s such a fine line that if you misjudge it you might end up with underproofed and flat loaves. No fun. That’s why I typically recommend a 30% rise. But with a bit of time, you’ll figure out what works best for you. Good luck!

Thanks Yossi! I appreciate that! The only page I have with step by step instruction is this one right here. It includes all the small details and insights that are too impractical to include in a video. It’s a long article, but if you read it through it should give you a much better idea about the entire process than the video alone can. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Hey Gary, there could be many reasons that your dough is coming out too wet — but the 50/50 blended starter probably isn’t the culprit (unless your starter is overly acidic and proteolytic). And it could certainly be a problem with your scale, but that’s easy to test. The most common reason for wetter dough is simply because different flours absorb water differently. If your flour doesn’t absorb as much water as mine then you will end up with a wetter dough. And if you’re in a warmer and more humid environment than me, that can make a difference as well.

My suggestion is to adjust the hydration as necessary. It’s not the amount of water per se that’s most important, it’s the consistency of the dough. So just reduce hydration until you get a dough consistency that’s similar to what you see in the video. Good luck!

Hello, Trevor.
For a guy like me, who discovered the art of making handmade breads, his blog is a paradise.
I have made several breads with the natural fermentation. All for your own consumption (for now!)
I reproduced his Sourdought Baguette recipe as closely as possible. I say this because I do not exactly know the water content of your starter. I worked with the information I had in the recipe – 100% hydration.
I have a question and allow me to abuse your patience.
I usually work with 60% hydration in the final batter. Sometimes it gets thick and hard and crust is not so developed. What, in your opinion, can be the main cause?
Another, how much flour and water do you usually feed your starter, or “masa masa”?
Thanks for listening

I actually don’t have a “set” method for how I feed my starter. I change it up fairly often based on need, circumstance, whim and curiosity. That said, currently I’ve been maintaining a 50% hydration starter fed in a 1:3:6 ratio (that’s 1 part seed starter, 3 parts water, 6 parts flour; all by weight). What that looks like in practice is 10g seed starter, 30g water and 60g bread flour. Sometimes I keep it out at room temperature and feed it twice a day (about 12 hours apart) and use it “as is” in my bread. Other times I toss it in the fridge for up to a week or so, picking small pieces from it and building a levain for the bread.

Regarding your 60% hydration dough, if I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying the dough gets thick and hard and the resulting bread has an underdeveloped crust? If that’s the case, then it may just be that your dough is drying out. If the loaf develops a thick skin before you bake it, then it’s difficult for the crust to brown so you get a thick dull lifeless crust that might limit the amount of ovenspring in your loaf.

If that’s what’s happening, then you need to determine why your dough is developing the skin. Without knowing anything else about your process, I can’t really say why that would be. But two common reasons for excessive skin on a loaf are 1) too much exposure to air — i.e. it may need to be better covered, especially if the dough is rising in a drafty area or if the air has very low humidity. 2) Too much flour on the surface of the loaf. The flour will cause the surface to dry creating a thick skin.

If I misunderstood your question then let me know and I’ll see if I can come up with a better answer. Cheers!

Hello, Trevor.
Thank you very much for your explanation. I will review my method, particularly in the flour accumulation on the surface of the dough. I think I’m using too much flour during handling before entering the oven.
Another change I made (and that improved the quality of the final product) was to increase the water vapor inside the oven: in addition to a small bowl of water I am “sprinkling” water in abundance for the first 15 minutes of cooking.
Thank you so much again. I keep track of your experience.

That’s the way to do it! Most home ovens are designed to vent — even if you create a lot of steam initially, it will quickly vent leaving the oven too dry for the baking bread. The trick is to create enough steam at the outset, but to also keep it from venting out of the oven. A popular combo is to use a pan full of lava rocks (like I do) to create the initial burst of steam, but to also use a soaked and rolled up towel to continually release water vapor as the loaf bakes. My oven holds steam fairly well, so I don’t need the extra step, but it can be very helpful for ovens that are more prone to venting. Here’s a great post on the subject — https://www.theperfectloaf.com/baking-with-steam-in-your-home-oven/ Enjoy!

Another nice and inspirational video! Thank you for your patience and passion!
I’ve been on the right path after mastering the 65% hydration dough. I discovered that my dough become more and more flexible and my breads are improving very quickly. So it’s time to try this recipe, in fact, this type of shaping and baking. The challenge for me is to make the bread with nice aroma and taste and even crumb, keeping the crust light and gold. Now, even with my quite weak flour at 9,6 to 10 % protein, somehow the breads are better, with good oven spring. So I think I’m ready to move on baguettes – I feel I can handle the shaping.

Thanks Rositza! It sounds to me like you’re coming into your own. Usually, that means that you learn more by experimentation than by listening to fools like me. If you think that you’re ready to try different techniques, then that almost certainly means that you are. So I wish you the best! And just keep in mind, if you’re looking for a lighter and more golden crust then you can certainly reduce the oven temperature. I bake these baguettes hot, but you could just as easily bake them at 425F (218C) to get a lighter color. Since baguettes are so narrow, there’s little chance that they’ll be underbaked, even at such lower temps. So bake according to your own preferences. Never buy into the dogma that darker is better — the truth is that what you like is better. Cheers!

Thanks a lot Trevor for this video. Have learnt sourdough bread baking very recently. Not very confident of myself. But seeing the dough here which seems better to handle for a novice like me makes me hopeful that I can do it. Thanks once again. Will try it soon.

You’re quite welcome Revati! Stiff dough is always much better for the beginning baker than wetter dough. Stiff dough gives you something you can actually handle, something you can learn on. I wish you luck!

So glad a fellow poster on pizzamaking.com found you and recommended your website. I have been baguette fixated for several months and just baked a couple following, as best I could, your direction and video.

Thank you!!!! Great flavor, great crumb, lots of big holes all over the place, who could ask for more?

……Me…..A couple of questions for my future attempts:

– I was surprised to find the dough was kind of sticky when I scraped it out of the bowl, pre-shaped and shaped (I did cheat a bit and used 67% hydration). The flour was King Arthur All Purpose. The bake was very, very nice and I got a pretty good oven spring. The scoring all opened up very nicely. But, the loaves were a little “flat and wide” and not particularly round.

Can you guide me on what may have caused this? My guess was that I was so gun shy about over kneading that I did not knead enough. But, just a guess.

– Please forgive the heresy- Could I follow the same regimen with Instant Dry Yeast? How would you adjust and with how much yeast? Sometimes, I do not want to go through the extra steps of staging my starter in advance with a good feeding. And, I do like the crust and spring with commercial yeast.

BTW, I really enjoy your photography. I would love to be able to do what you have done. Thanks for the links. I don’t know where to start!

Hey Mitch, thanks for the kind words! Without being there in person to see for myself what’s going on, I can really only speculate as to why your loaves were a bit on the flat side. But, based on experience, I can speculate fairly well . . .

Most likely your loaves were underproofed during the bulk. Dough that spreads wide instead of standing tall after shaping is usually due to underproofing during the bulk stage. If your dough doesn’t rise at least 30% to 50% in volume during the bulk, then it won’t have the necessary air structure internally to hold a decent shape. Add to that a wetter dough (which requires more expert shaping in order to create enough surface tension to retain shape) and you might end up with flatter baguettes.

As for using dry yeast, you can absolutely replace the sourdough starter with that if you prefer (just be sure to adjust the flour and water in the recipe to accommodate). I see no heresy there. Nothing wrong with yeasted breads whatsoever. I despise dogma — and though I typically prefer to bake with sourdough, that doesn’t mean it’s inherently better than any other method of leavening. As far as I’m concerned, whatever gives you the results that you prefer is the best method.

That said, I can’t really give you a conversion ratio. I mean, I could, but it would require a bit more extra work than I currently have time for. But considering the size of the recipe, I’m guessing that you might need to halve a typical dose in order to create a dough that rises on a similar timeline. But if you want a quicker rising bread, then a full dose should do. Just be aware, if you use a full dose of yeast, then the dough might rise quite a bit more during the rest period after the initial mix. In which case, you might do a bit of damage when you finish kneading. I don’t know that will happen for sure, but it’s something to be aware of. You could always reduce the rest period to 30 minutes after mixing if you’re worried about it. That’s still enough time for the dough to develop well enough. Good luck!

Your page was highly recommended by a group on FB so I had to check it out … and I have found a favorite!! Just put my first batch of these on the sheet to rise undercover, though I had to add almost half-again more flour to get the right dough consistency (and it is STILL a bit on the sticky/wet side, but manageable), it smells and is ACTING like I expect bread dough to. Thank you for an OUTSTANDING video, and concise, easy-to-follow directions! I don’t have the proper scoring setup so my cuts will end up being crap, but I can already tell these baguettes are going to be a much requested family favorite. THANK YOU!!

Thanks Wynonah, I hope they come out well for you! But don’t worry too much about how they come out this first time — the first time is always the worst. But what you learn here will make for better baguettes the next time. And what you learn then will make for even better baguettes the following time. And so on and so forth. That’s just how these things go. I wish you luck!

Hey GB, in this video I’m using a Mercer Millennia 10 inch. Far and away the best bread knife I’ve ever used — it was actually given to me as a gift by one of the readers here. So much better than my last bread knife. Here’s a link to it on amazon . . .

I would like to ask if you could do a video one day of your kneading method, showing everything from start to finish, without cuts, and including wetting your hands?

I’m able to decent bread of various styles, hydration, shaping techniques, etc. All need to be practiced further, but I’d say that as an amateur I can hold my own. Kneading however is where I really struggle. I am totally unable to get anywhere near what you do. After 1 hour and using exactly your quantity of ingredients, I get a rested dough that looks very close to yours.Using a wet (damp) hand, the first 3 stretches appear somewhat similar to yours, and after that it’s complete chaos.

Your dough seems to form a skin and hold tension; you are able to knead and knead, without the dough sticking to anything, until in the end your hands are clean, the bowl is clean, and the dough is nicely tense.

In comparison, my dough doesn’t stick for the first three folds because of my damp hands, but every stretch after that brings me closer to something that has the mushiness of mashed potatoes and the stickiness of blue-tack. The gluten becomes so strong that it feels like a rubber ball if I try to knead further. My dough never forms a skin and the surface is never tight. I usually give up kneading after 10 minutes (and any minutes more than 5 doesn’t seem to make any difference); I’m able to lift the dough in one pull to transfer it to a clean bowl, but the dough sticks to my hands so bad that I can’t drop it into the new one. My hands are full of dough that must be scraped off. I’ve tried many other techniques (stretch & fold, slap & fold, etc.), and I never seem to get to the stage where you have this nice piece of dough that handles well.

The only solution I’ve found is to dust some flour, which then allows me to handle the dough and do what I need – up to a point. If the flour film breaks, the dough underneath with stick to everything. I can pre-shape/shape that way, but I can’t put too much tension, otherwise the dust film breaks. I’ve narrowed down to two possibilities: either I’m hopeless, or my kneading technique really needs some more work!

PS; I don’t believe my dough is too wet (can do up to 73% hydration without failing), and I really mean “dusting” – I don’t add more than one teaspoon of flour as dust, during pre-shape/shape.

Hey Gus, does your dough seem to fall apart the longer it proofs? Because if the dough seems to deteriorate or degrade the longer it rises (instead of gaining strength) then you might actually be developing proteolytic dough (gluten dissolving). That could explain the “mashed potato” texture. And if that’s the case, proteolytic dough is usually caused by proteolytic starter. That’s a starter maintenance issue. If you live in a hot and humid environment (which I think you do), then this could very well be a problem.

But, perhaps a more likely reason is simply that what appears to be “stickiness” is really just a matter of dough handling ability. The first question every new baker asks in the bakery is “why does the dough stick to my hands, but not to yours?” I asked this very question myself when I first started baking. Dough that appears sticky and messy in the hands of the apprentice will appear smooth and supple in the hands of the teacher.

It’s just like magic — a skilled magician can perform extremely difficult tricks, but make it look so easy that every novice thinks it should be a breeze. Until they try it for themselves, that is. It’s all about hand skills.

The fact that you’re able to handle the dough with only the lightest coating of flour, but that without it you can’t, implies that it’s a dough handling issue. And since you live in a hot humid environment, that makes the dough all the stickier. So it may just be a matter of practice.

As far as dough hydration goes, I’m of the opinion that if the dough is too difficult to handle then it’s too wet. It’s actually pretty rare that a dough, especially a long proofing sourdough, is underkneaded. Gluten develops on it’s own over time — that’s why methods such as stretch and fold can work. More often than not, dough that’s too sticky is simply just too wet, not underdeveloped.

Keep in mind that “too wet” is a very relative term. What’s too wet for one may be just right for another. But if dough handling is so difficult that it’s negatively affecting the quality of your bread, then to me that’s the very definition of “too wet”. Better to reduce hydration until you get a dough that you can comfortably handle. As your skills improve, then you can slowly work your way back up the hydration ladder.

That’s really the best guess I can come up with based on the limited information I have. I would really need to be there in person to see for myself what’s going on in order to make a more accurate determination. Hopefully it helps.

Yes, I live in Thailand, very hot and humid. Based on your description and what I can read elsewhere, I’d say 65% chance I do have a proteolytic problem (definitely doesn’t strengthen over time). The part where I’m confused is that the dough doesn’t start nice either. It’s always sticky, from bad to worse. My work-around is to use really cold water and refrigerated flour, so my dough starts very cold, which helps in the handling. But I have to let it warm up eventually, and have tried many methods to control temp (eg cooler box with a small block of ice). It helps, but it’s not clear cut – and it becomes tedious, doing environment control instead of bread…
I’ve noticed that I can do a nice dough up to 63% hydration, and it looks just like yours, and handles well. At 65% it’s difficult, and 72-3% is the highest I can do (with dusting) but then I need to use A/C in the kitchen 24×7 to achieve that.

You haven’t talked about taste in your blog… Recently I’ve done some experiments regarding sourness, leaving the final proof at hot ambient temperature for 2-3 hours hoping to increase the sourness. I was surprised to NOT taste much difference. Also trying your stiff dough method with numerous folds, or even the Rubaud method with wet dough, I was surprised to obtain great texture but tasteless bread and not sour. Would the strong loss of taste and relative absence of sourness also be symptoms of proteolytic dough?

I met a professional French baker during a food exhibition yesterday, and after listening to me, he immediately said “your dough is rotten”! (pourrie in French).
I laughed and said no, it’s fine. Apparently “rotten dough” has a special meaning in baking, where it falls apart as you describe. His suggestion was to reduce starter inoculation down to 2-3% max, which would be plenty enough to start a long fermentation (suspecting the problem is starter, as you do), and replacing the balance instead by adding old fermented dough (reusing a bit of yesterday’s dough) for taste and for dough strength in today’s batch. My understanding is that I would get a lot less of the “bad stuff” from my starter, and add the missing flavor and “lost” flour (from reduced starter) with this additional dough. I don’t know the English terms for this technique, so I’m still searching the net for examples – but I do see an interesting angle, which lines up with your suggestions!

Do you have any recommendations for % of starter and % of old dough, to mix with the new dough in such case?

Is it ok to dilute the old dough into to the cold water first, to ease the overall mixing of ingredients? Would that be counterproductive, breaking all the gluten bonds in the old dough before mixing in the new flour?

Finally, what’s the cure for proteolytic starter? Throw away and start a new one from scratch? Start an intensive feeding routine, discarding a hefty portion each time? I keep mine in the fridge most of the time, except 3-5 hours at ambient temp after refreshing. Would a temperature shock help (eg no fridge for 2 days)?

Hey Gus, let’s start with the starter. Great bread can only be made with a healthy and active starter. There is no workaround to this (short of adding commercial yeast). If you add old dough as a replacement for some of the starter you’re still adding sick dough made from sick starter. It may or may not help a bit, but it won’t provide you nearly the same results that you would get from using a strong healthy starter (or the old dough made from that healthy starter). Your number one goal as a sourdough baker is to learn to develop, maintain and use a vigorous starter. That is the foundation upon which all great sourdough bread is built.

If your starter has gone proteolytic, then it needs a massive discard. Meaning that next time you refresh it you should use a very high dilution of the seed — something like a 1:5:5 ratio (1 part seed starter, 5 parts water, 5 parts flour; all by weight). Assuming you use a 100% hydration starter, that is. Then, you can revert to a more typical 1:2:2 ratio (or 1:3:3 or greater because of your warm climate) for twice a day feedings at room temp for a few days (or three times a day, again because of your warm climate). Once the starter is reliably doubling in volume (or better yet, tripling in volume) within 8 hours or so of refreshment, then you can consider returning it to the fridge. A healthy and active starter should have no problem doubling or tripling within 8 hours of feeding, especially in such warm temperatures.

As far as flavor goes . . . there are 3 main components to bread flavor: 1) ingredients (flour, etc.), 2) fermentation (more fermentation equals more flavor, different temps create different fermentation flavors), and 3) the inherent flavor qualities unique to each individual starter (some bakers might add water as a 4th component of flavor, but I’m not sold on that). Each one of these components consists of many sub-components, which would take too long to go into here. But in brief . . .

Flavorless bread usually is due to a lack of quality fermentation (or because the baker forgot the salt). By “quality” fermentation I mean active fermentation. Inactive starters do not create quality fermentation, whereas proteolytic starters tend to create unpleasantly sharp sour flavors (and bread whose crumb tends to be raw or gummy, and sometimes even begins rotting a few days after baking). It doesn’t matter whether the fermentation is long and cool or warm and short — if you don’t have an active fermentation then you’re just not going to get much fermentation flavor either way.

Now, if you’re not getting much fermentation flavor, then that means your flavor is really just coming from the other 2 components (flour, and culture). Flour in and of itself isn’t that flavorful (unless you’re using some specialty grains or something) and needs fermentation to bring out its inherent flavor, so that just leaves the culture itself. Some cultures are more flavorful than others — but if your dough isn’t getting much fermentation, then the culture can’t really color the flavor as noticeably as it would with greater fermentation. As you can see, without quality fermentation then the other 2 flavor components will have little to add. Fermentation is everything.

Once you’re able to get a good strong fermentation, then you might find that altering proofing times and temps will affect the flavor more noticeably. But it all depends first on getting that quality fermentation — which means building a strong, active and healthy starter. That is the key.

Thank you for all the great tips. It’s very hard to figure out what to do “precisely”, because your explanations are very sensible and “easy”, but real life is not 🙂

I never have a fermentation problem. It’s so warm here (28-32 C), that to fix my starter, I simply refreshed 1:10:10, keeping barely a tablespoon of my old starter. The first feed cycle took 5 hours to max out, and after that refreshing at 1:3:3 each time more than doubles in size within 4 hours (3x day). If I let it go more than 5 hours without fridge or feeding, the starter begins to collapse.

My problem is slowing down fermentation, in starter AND in bread! Fridge is the easy answer, and cooling seldom goes wrong. Warming up for final proof is another story. Either dough is not fully proofed, or the core is still cold while the outer layer is ready to bake (I sometimes end up with funny bread, fluffy on the outside layer and gummy at the core!)

Anyway, after 3 days of intensive feeding cycle (fridge only overnight), the starter is now very healthy, smells good, and my bread dough handles much better than before. Thank you!!! I’m not yet at the level of your 65% video, but the clear improvement was well worth the effort.

Regarding taste, I think I know what is the issue: I used to ferment typically 20% of total flour (from starter). With your 65% recipe, this comes down to barely 5% total flour from starter. So it’s normal that the sour taste feels less strong. I need to adjust with a slightly longer bulk/final proof, to get back the taste I’m looking for.

I’ll be experimenting from here and see if I can master the 65% dough handling!

I’m glad to hear that you’ve got your starter going strong! Regarding flavor and the amount of prefermented flour — there are two main schools of thought regarding whether increasing the amount of prefermented flour in a recipe increases its sourness. Some believe that more starter equals more sourness. Seems pretty logical. Others believe that less starter (combined with a longer bulk) actually produces a more sour bread. That’s been my experience. I’ve even done side by side tests and without fail I get more flavor and more tang when I use less starter and a longer bulk.

But I certainly wouldn’t presume to say that my experience should be everyone’s experience as well. However, I do believe that due to the large number of variables at play during each day’s bake it’s difficult to compare different loaves made on different days. So the best way to determine for sure is to do side by side same day tests, and recruit some friends and family for a blind tasting (if practical). It’s not perfect, but it makes for a better comparison than bread made on different days. Certainly something worth considering if you’re looking to nail down how certain variables affect flavor with your starter in your kitchen.

I’ve enjoyed all the videos so far, but particularly this one on baguettes. I can confirm the flexibility of the recipe. Yesterday, with no sourdough starter ready, I planned to make an English bloomer (so named because it ‘blooms’ in the oven), using dried yeast and strong bread flour. However, I was also keen to try the techniques shown in the video. All went well until the end of the first rise when, with the dough on the bench, I couldn’t be sure it would work well as a single, free-form loaf, switched plans and decided to go for two baguettes after all. I cut the time for the final rise to 60 minutes, but could perhaps have left them for longer. Still, using commercial yeast and strong bread flour, I still got two very good loaves – not massive holes in the crumb, but good crust, good crumb texture and very good eating! Many thanks!

That’s great Ken! Sometimes you just gotta improvise. In fact, I consider the ability to improvise a true hallmark of a bakers skill. It’s just a fact of life that things go wrong. Often. And the baker who can improvise — the baker who’s adaptable — is the baker who will ultimately be more consistent. Keep up the good work bud!

Hi Trevor, thanks for your video and detailed explanation. I have sourdough starter in my fridge so can you explain me how to prepare 100 gr white starter? Normally I take 20 gr of mother starter, add 40 gr flour and 40 gr water for the levan and wait 5-6 hours at room temperature then put into my dough. Does this work for your recipe? Thank you

Absolutely! So long as your starter is healthy and active it should work just fine. I tend to purposely avoid suggesting how folks should prep their starter. Every baker has their own personal preference and should approach the matter as they choose. All that matters is that the starter is strong and vigorous. Personally, I tend towards a more mature starter — something like 10-12 hours old. But I actually vary it quite often, sometimes even using a very young starter of just 2-3 hours old. Again, so long as the starter is healthy (capable of doubling or tripling in volume within 8 hours of refreshment) then however you like to use it should be just fine.

True beginner over here – two brief starter questions (though I’m quickly learning that topic is on the more taboo side among breadmakers, which is sort of ironic because I find it one of the more confusing parts). Still wading my way through the “fed” vs “unfed” starter debate – do you have a take for this recipe?

Second, for background, I’ve been tending to a 125% hydration starter (I think): 1:1.25 ratio water to flour. How is best to modify for this recipe (e.g., is that mod front-end ingredient wise or back-end proofing / kneading wise)

Hi Chelsea, discussing sourdough starters is definitely something that can cause some confusion. The problem is that there are so many different ways to make it work. Each baker must struggle through a bit of trial and error to find a maintenance routine that works well for them. And what works for one might not work for another. That’s why it’s very difficult to discuss specifics — there really are none. But we try nonetheless. So to answer your questions . . .

I’m not aware of the “fed vs. underfed debate,” what it’s about or what others might have to say on the matter. If I’m understanding you correctly, then this is simply a matter of starter health. An underfed starter is by definition an unhealthy starter. What constitutes underfeeding, however, is variable and circumstantial. A liquid starter kept out on the counter during the hot Summer months may require 3 or even 4 refreshments a day in order to keep it fully active. It might be underfed if not refreshed at least daily. A stiff starter kept in the fridge, however, may go several days or much longer before the microorganisms have run through their food supply. So it’s all relative.

There’s nothing wrong (up to a point) with keeping your starter in an underfed state so long as you bring it back to health before using it to make bread. A healthy starter is a prerequisite to making great bread. If I’ve misunderstood you here then please correct me and I’ll give you a better answer.

When it comes to adjusting your starter to fit my recipe, you can proceed in a couple of different ways. You can change the starter over to 100% hydration (front end), or you can adjust the remaining ingredients to accommodate the wetter starter (back end). Whichever way you prefer will be fine. I wouldn’t worry about the white whole wheat in the starter — it will make a negligible difference.

Thanks so much for your reply, Trevor! I ended up pulling from my starter to make a separate, smaller 100% hydration one and all went according to plan – turned out some bomb-@ss baguettes from a flavor / crumb perspective, even if my shaping technique was lacking and caused a bottom-popped seam (yay learning curve!) 🙂

On the fed / unfed debate, I was more asking when in the cycle of starter feeding is the best time to use the starter – I keep mine in the fridge and feed every 5-6 days as I’m only an occasional baker, and the question is whether I can pop the starter out of the fridge and throw some into a recipe (considering this “unfed” starter, as it’s “eaten” up most of the previous feed) or whether I need to refresh the starter and use 5 or so hours after feeding (considering this “fed” starter). Certain recipes I’ve found call for “fed” vs. “unfed,” so just wanted to check in there. Based on your last comment, it does seem that “fed” is more what I should be going for.

Whether to use the starter as “fed” or “unfed” is really a matter of results. If using an “unfed” starter gives you results that you like, then there’s no reason not to do so. Though I usually keep my starter at room temp and feed it twice a day, every now and then I get lazy and toss it in the fridge for a few weeks. And often times I’ll pull directly from the refrigerated starter and add it right to the dough when making bread — no refreshments.

But . . .

I know my starter very well, I keep it stiff when I refrigerate it (usually 50% hydration), and I usually use a very small amount (to keep the acid transfer and degraded gluten low) with the understanding that I will need to use a longer bulk to compensate. I can make very good bread this way, but it’s never quite as good as the bread made with a well fed and happy starter.

Most bakers will opt to feed their starter one or two times at room temp to bring it back to a very active state if it’s been kept in the fridge for awhile. This is particularly helpful for less experienced bakers who may not have complete understanding of their starter’s activity cycle or haven’t yet fully learned to read the signs of its state of health.

Really, the best thing you can do is simply experiment and see how things turn out. There is no one correct way of doing things. Common practice is common for a reason — because it’s proven useful for the majority — but that doesn’t mean that common practice is best practice for everyone. So feel free to experiment!

I made these for the second time today. The first time the dough was fairly wet and spread some, but tasted good. This time it was also fairly wet, but didn’t spread as much. This time I used KA bread flour because I live a long distance from town and am almost out of all purpose. I don’t remember what I used the first time. Of course, handling the dough was a challenge. I started this endeavor (sourdough) in October, and it continues to be a challenge. I am sometimes surprised when things turn out okay when I don’t expect it. Your site is welcome to me. Nonetheless, a challenge still. So many questions.

I am having a terrible time with scoring. I have a lame, but apparently don’t know how to use it! I am not sure if I am just not gauging my proofing properly or if I am not using the tool properly, or both. I suppose I will get it in time, but it is certainly most noticeable in the baguettes. Thankfully they taste good but they aren’t pretty😕

Thank you. Excellent instruction and I love the simplified approach. My effort was pretty darned good thanks to you. I have to tinker with oven temperature as I got a near black seam on the backside (funny, not the whole bottom, just along the seam line–I wonder why?). Looking forward to trying more.

OMG! I love you! I just tried this recipe. I have never baked sourdough before and didn’t believe that you could make bread with crust like this at home. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. The bread came out awesome. The crumb was fairly good both small holes and big ones, blah,blah,blah. But the crust…muuuahhh! Wonderful flavor. My husband and I ate one loaf warm out of oven and the crunch is great. But the one that we let cool, wow! The crust absorbed the humidity and has become chewy crunchy in a good way. I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific (Hawaii) in a tropical rainforest at 1200′. I was afraid that the humidity level would wreck havoc on the process, but not so much. Every step was short, bulk ferment 2.5 hours, proof 1 hour. Thank you again for your wonderful videos. I can’t wait to try the Champlain Sourdough.

Like some of the guys, I have struggled with amongst other aspects; the starter, and too wet a dough. This video and others you have done, show a great method and I’m just gonna keep practising after watching your vids.
Many Thanks for your enthusiasm and teaching